'Beauty and the Beast' makes epic $165M opening

“Beauty and the Beast” had already banked nearly $40 million at noon PDT with pre-sales and a stellar $16.3 million from Thursday night previews. The first-day total approached $60 million to $63 million in the evening.

Emma Watson stars as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast in Disney's “Beauty and the Beast”, a live-action adaptation of the studio's animated classic directed by Bill Condon.

The film — the only new film opening wide — should add between $80 million and $110 million in international box office as Disney is launching in about 70% of markets.

The most optimistic forecasts issued earlier in the week had “Beauty” finishing with the best March opening ever for the domestic box office, eclipsing last year's $166 million launch for “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” — which was the eighth-best opening of all time.

Reviews have been mostly positive with a current 68% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “Beauty and the Beast” will be by far the biggest domestic launch of 2017, easily outpacing the $88 million opening for “Logan” two weeks ago.

The second weekend of Warner Bros.-Legendary Entertainment's “Kong: Skull Island” should lead the rest of the pack with about $24 million, followed by the third weekend of Fox's “Logan” in the $18 million range and the fourth weekend of Universal-Blumhouse's “Get Out” with $13 million.

Source: Variety